·Class room
reproduction to students – either directly from this webpage or from the book
itself – requires also prior permission of the publisher.

·If this webpage
text is hyperlinked from another domain, it is important that the link goes to
the very beginning of this text (i.e. before and not after these copyright
notes).

·Robert Schleip highly recommends the
purchase of this book by Ruth Werner and Ben E. Benjamin for any practitioner
of deep tissue manipulation as well as other somatic practitioners. The
following excerpt is only a small portion of the book, which is at the appendix
of the book, called ‘Quick Reference Chart’. The main part of this book (489
pages) contains a much more detailed description of most of the conditions. The
chart below often includes under ‘condition name’ a reference to a specific
page number in the book, which then contains usually 2 to 4 pages of detailed
information about this condition and why and how massage might be
contraindicated or indicated, as well as specific cautionary notes and
recommendations for the practitioner.

This appendix provides a reference for massage students and
practitioners who need fast answers to simple questions. It is not intended as
a substitute for reading the complete article for each condition, and will not
provide enough information to make a well informed decision without that
background. Some conditions, however, are not detailed in text. These have been
marked with an *.

Several things are important to remember while using these quick
reference charts:

•The label "indicated" does not mean
that a condition will always be improved by massage. It means that massage will
not make the situation worse, and the support and comfort massage gives can
certainly be beneficial to the client, if not to the particular condition.

•The term "massage" refers to
circulatory‑based massage that has a direct effect on blood and lymph
flow. If a condition is labeled "contraindicated," it's usually
because the influence of massage on circulation would have a negative impact on
the client. This does not necessarily rule out touch altogether, however, and
many conditions that contraindicate vigorous circulatory massage are perfectly
appropriate for less mechanically based bodywork modalities.

•When
massage is considered appropriate or indicated, it is a systemic
recommendation. When massage is contraindicated, guidelines for whether those
cautions are local or systemic have been provided.

•The specific kind of impact that massage may
have on various conditions is discussed in the complete articles rather than
here in the abbreviatedversion.

The most important thing to remember is that it
is impossible to make a foolproof judgment about whether massage is a good
choice strictly from a book. Every client is different; every practitioner has
a different kind of approach. These recommendations are just that:
recommendations that may help to shape well‑informed decisions about the
appropriateness of massage.

When
clicking on any of the following links, be patient- it takes a while for all
the information to come up for you.

·Please
respect the copyright remarks at the beginning of this article.

·You
are welcome to put a link on your webpage to this one.

·If
instead of hyperlinking you want to post it yourself on your webpage, then

·-
you need to first get formal permission by the publisher

·-
Due to the complex nature of this chart it took considerable time and costs to
get it digitized with a good OCR software. If you want to copy the digitized
text onto your webpage – with the publisher’s permission – a small share of the
original scanning & OCR costs would be appreciated. Please contact
info@somatics.de